UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION FEDERALAVIATIONADMINISTRATION WASHINGTON, D.C.

Safer Medical ofMontana and George Ackerson Complainants,

v. City ofFort Benton, Montana and Chouteau County, Montana. Respondents. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) FAADocketNo. 16-15-12

COMPLAINANTS' REPLYTOREQUESTFORADDITIONALINFORMATION AND NOTICE OFEXTENSION OFTIME
Comes now, Complainants in the above entitled matter, and file theirresponse to the FAA's Request for Additional Information as follows: REQUEST FORADDITIONAL INFORMATION
I. LEASE INFORMATION.
As the Respondents have already stated intheir Reply, neither the County, the City, nor the Board can find a copy ofthe current site lease for Taylor Aviation, Inc. atthe Fort Benton Airport. Respondents also do not know what the terms ofthat lease are, althoughthey know that Taylor Aviation continues to pay rent as required. However, Andy Taylor informed Complainants at one point that he currently has a 75-year lease. Additionally, Mayor Richard Morris, the City ofFort Benton's Mayor, stated in a recent deposition that he had heard the Taylor Aviation lease was a 75 year lease. 1 Iftrue, Taylor Aviation has a lease with extremely favorable terms that have not been offered to any other lessee ofa site atthe Airport. Every other current site lease, whether for an individual or a company, is for 10 years. Complainants' lease is similarly only for 10 years. IfTaylor Aviation's lease is a 75-year lease, the term ofthat lease is for 65 years longer than any other lease. Additionally, Taylor Aviation has made improvements since 1998. Inparticular, Taylor Aviation has constructed at least one entire new hangar. Since Respondents cannot find a copy ofTaylor Aviation's current lease, it is also unclear whether the current lease covers the same property as the pre-1998 lease. Although there is no dispute that Taylor Aviation had a site lease prior to 1998, it is unknown whether additional sites were later added to the lease.

1 The transcript from that deposition has not yetbeen obtained, but Complainants are happy to provide a copy when it is complete.

### II. EFFECT OFTHE 1998 AGREEMENT ONEXISTING LEASES. Respondents admit that Taylor Aviation's lease is essentially a perpetual lease. Under the terms ofthe 1998 Agreement, Respondents believethat they have the right to renewthe Taylor Aviation lease every time 

### itexpires, although perhapsthat will not occur for a very long time. Meanwhile, Complainants' lease can neverbe renewed. Thus, while Complainants will no longer have access to their hangar once the 1 0-year lease term expires, Taylor Aviation will continue to lease property and operate its business right next door. The terms ofthe 1998 Agreement have created a situation where one lessee has a perpetual right to lease property at the southwestportion ofthe Airport and his neighbor does not. More importantly, Complainants invested a considerable amount ofmoney in rehabilitating their hangar without any knowledge ofthe 1998 Agreement and with every right to assume that they were entitled to the same treatment as Taylor Aviation. Complainants' hangar is concrete and it would be prohibitively expensive to even attemptto move it to the newer portion ofthe Airport. Itis Complainants' understanding that TaylorAviation would similarly face prohibitive costs ifrequired to move its buildings.
Dated this 1st day ofSeptember, 2016.

Adrian A. Miller Michelle M. Sullivan Michael A. Monson HOLLAND & HART LLP 401 North 31st Street Suite 1500 P.O. Box 639 Billings, Montana 59103-0639
ATTORNEYS FOR COMPLAINANTS

2CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I hereby certify that I have this day caused the foregoing to be served onthe following persons at the following addresses by U.S. Mail and by electronic mail:
Office ofthe ChiefCounsel FAA Part 16 Docket Clerk, AGC- 600 Federal Aviation Administration 800 Independence Avenue SW Washington, DC 20591 9-AWA-AGC-Part-16@faa.gov
Brian Lilletvedt Bosch, Kuhr, Dugdale, Martin & Kaze, PLLP 335 FourthAvenue P.O. Box 7152 Havre, Montana 59501 Attorney for City ofFortBenton blilletvedt@bkdlaw.org
Mitchell A. Young MontanaAssociation ofCounties 2717 Skyway Drive Suite F Helena, Montana 59602 Attorney for Chouteau County, MT myoung@mtcounties.org

Dated this 1st day ofSeptember, 2016

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9058432

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